


starry night.

by sniikt



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Dating, F/M, Fade to Black, Fluff, date fic babey!, joel is a romantic, smut is implied but not written
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:55:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23958790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sniikt/pseuds/sniikt
Summary: joel always was a romantic, after all.
Relationships: Joel (The Last of Us)/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 142





	starry night.

**Author's Note:**

> it's an observatory date fic babey! also i could Not resist calling it starry night i am very sorry

He won’t tell you where you’re going.

Joel meets you outside the stables after your shift is up, guitar slung on his back, Biscuit’s reins in one hand, and the reins to your mare, Sunny, in the other hand. He grins widely at you, as you shield your eyes from the afternoon sun, and butterflies explode in your chest at his smile.

“What’re you doing?” you ask, giving Sunny a pat as you pass her, and rubbing Biscuit’s shoulder, which he snorts at.

Joel’s grin grows wider somehow, and he leans down to kiss you. You press a hand to his chest as he does, and when he slowly pulls away he says, “Wanna go for a ride?”

He offers you Sunny’s reins, and you take them, as he pulls away to throw Biscuit’s reins around his neck. “Where’re we going?” you ask, rubbing Sunny’s forehead before pulling yourself up in the saddle.

“’s not far,” he says easily, grin still plastered on his face. “C’mon. Follow me.”

He spurs Biscuit into a trot, and you follow him out of town, and through the fields and forests outside the walls of Jackson. Eventually—when you’re far enough from the town to be away from prying eyes and ears, he slows Biscuit to a walk, dropping back to ride beside you. He takes your free hand with his hand that’s not on the reins, intertwining his fingers with yours, in an act of physical intimacy that you’re still getting used to. This Joel—the one with large grins and casual acts of love is so new, so different, from the Joel that came to Jackson that it sometimes knocks you off your feet.

“Missed you,” Joel says, just loudly enough for you to hear, large grin now a lopsided lovesick smile that makes your heart swell a few sizes.

“I saw you this morning,” you say, just as quietly, with a soft laugh.

He huffs a laugh, and squeezes your hand a little. “’s still a long time.”

You smile up at him, feeling a familiar warmth spread through you as you meet his eyes—a nice sparkling hazel in the low sun, flecks of green catching in the light.

You’ve only been together for a month now, but you can’t remember what it was like before you loved him.

“You gonna tell me where we’re going now?” You ask after a moment, glancing out over the road before you, losing yourself in the warm sunlight, holding his hand, and the familiar rocking of Sunny’s lazy walk.

“Just thought we could get out of town for a bit,” he says, shifting in his saddle.

You scoff, and throw a glance down at his nearly bursting backpack and saddlebags. “You need that much stuff for ‘just getting out’?”

He laughs, a sound that you think will never stop giving you butterflies. “I do,” he says slowly, with a thick southern drawl, that you roll your eyes at.

“Okay, Texas.”

* * *

Your ride takes you along the river for a bit before curving up into the mountains, along a somewhat overgrown hiking path with wildflowers growing along the tree line. Eventually, you come to a grey building with a long faded logo that you can’t make out, and what were probably once nice glass railings, that have sense been shattered. It was probably a nice building, once, but now you can’t tell what it might have been.

Joel slides off of Biscuit, and then offers a hand to you. “Ma’am,” he says, sly grin across his features.

You laugh as you let him help you off your own horse, and then he takes her reins and leads both of the horses into a forgotten and abandoned storage building.

“What’s this?” You say, as he unstraps his backpack and holds it with one hand, slinging the saddlebags over his shoulder with the other.

“A surprise,” he says noncommittally, a hint of humor in his voice.

“An abandoned building is my surprise?”

He laughs, heading up the steps of the building before nodding at you to follow him. “’s the romantic in me.”

He leads you up winding sets of stairs to the top floor of the three story building. He dumps the bags outside a heavy looking grey metal door, as you lean against the remnants of the railing. You’re on a peak of the mountain, and can see the world before you—Jackson in the distance, a bright spot among crumpled remains of towns and cities scattered in patches of green that is the overgrown world you live in now. The river winds out, coming down from the mountain and through forests and clearings to run to Jackson, the setting sun giving it an orange glow—a wildfire cutting it’s way through the landscape.

Joel comes up behind you, arms wrapping around your waist comfortably as he lets his head drop against our shoulder before kissing your neck gently.

“’s pretty up here,” you say, letting yourself bask in being able to touch him, to be alone with him, to love him.

“I know,” he says softly, chin resting on your shoulder, as he looks out over the world too. “Surprise isn’t out here though.” He presses one final kiss to your neck again, before tugging you back toward the door to the building.

“Here,” he says, positioning you in front of him gently, and then covering your eyes with his hands. He walks you forward—toward the door, you assume. “You ready?”

“You’d tell me if you were gonna murder me, right?”

Joel laughs, and then you hear the creaking of a metal door, and he leads you forward a few more steps, and moves his hands.

It’s a huge, round room. There is no ceiling—it’s open, looking up at the sky. the walls are tall, made of what looks to be layered grey concrete. The floor is made of nice hardwood. There’s a large telescope in the middle of the room. But what your eyes are drawn to more than any of that is the large quilt spread out on the floor, rose petals scattered around it, and candles lighting would would have been a fairly dark room otherwise.

You turn to Joel, suddenly speechless. That he would do something like this—and for you? It’s the most thoughtful thing anyone has done for you.

Joel is standing in the doorway, nervously thumbing the strap of his guitar with a nervous expectant look “Do—d’you like it?” he says softly.

You open your mouth to tell him yes, you love it, and you love him, but a surge of emotion catches the words in your throat and makes your heart clench tightly, so instead you close the distance between the two of you and kiss him—hard and deep and full of emotions you can’t find the words for. Your fingers tangle in his hair, and your free hand rests against his neck gently as he brings his arms around your waist and melts into you.

Eventually, breathless and just a little emotional, you pull away from him only slightly before resting your forehead against his forehead. “How about I show you just how much I like it?”

His breath hitches, and his hands tighten around your waist, and you back up, guiding him to the makeshift bed on the floor.

* * *

Later, the stars twinkle softly above you as Joel picks at his guitar absentmindedly, humming a song that you recognize but can’t remember the name of. You lean against him, comfortably, looking up at the stars, and wondering if you can stay like this forever.


End file.
